it behoved these lordes and knyghts to be lodged about in the neighbouring villages,” Duddingston doubtless among the rest. That they were anything but welcome to the people even as allies, Froissart soon discovered, for he says, "they dyde murmure and grudge, and sayde, who the devyll hath sent for them? Cannot we mayntayne our warr with England well enoughe without their helpe?”... "They understand not us nor we theym; they will annone ryffle and eat up all that ever we have in this countrey. They shall do us more dispytes and damages than though the Englyshmen shulde fyght with us; for thoughe the Englyshmen bruine [burn] our houses, we care lytell therefore, we shall make them agayne chepe enoughe; we axe but three days to make them agayne, if we maye get foure or fyve stakes and bows to cover them.” They evidently did not break their hearts over the destruction of their dwellings in those days!
If such was the domestic poverty of the Scottish nobility and the citizens of Edinburgh in olden times, what might we expect to be the condition of the artisan, the husbandman, and the peasant? The rude huts which in these times composed the villages of Easter and Wester Duddingston, built of wood and covered with thatch - the former from the forest surrounding their doors, and the latter from the reeds surrounding the Loch - gave place, no doubt, in time to cottages of stone. But even these must have been of the most primitive kind, with little furniture, and few of what we now deem "the necessaries of life.”
Both the principal villages of the parish have been occupied chiefly by a weaving and agricultural population for centuries. In Easter and Wester Duddingston the trade of weaving was carried on for many years down to the last century; the manufacture of a coarse flaxen stuff, known by the name of Duddingston hardings giving employment to upwards of thirty weavers’ looms. This cloth, which sold from 312d to 4d per yard, has long ceased to be produced,. During the latter part of last century the manufacture of Scotch broad cloth was carried on at Magdalene Bridge, and with some success for a time. But it was ultimately given up, and a manufactory of hats took its place. The latter was also given up, and of late years chemical works were carried on under various names, but they too have been closed since 1865, and the site is now (1898) occupied by a large malting house. Magdalene Bridge and Joppa were
